As the world's natural resources continue to be depleted, it is increasingly important to reuse and recycle products and materials. Recycling not only alleviates the need to store or burn used materials as waste, but it also saves energy by reducing the amount of material that must be harvested from the earth and processed into a useful form. Recycling some materials, such as plastic and rubber, is especially sensible, due to the large quantities consumed globally, their persistence in the environment, and the high costs associated with producing and manufacturing with virgin material. Using recycled materials to make new products can be particularly beneficial.
Previous methods of using recycled materials to manufacture new products suffer from several disadvantages, however. For example, many methods require large inputs of energy, melting and reprocessing, addition of virgin material, undesirable binder materials, highly technical and unforgiving processes, and excessive amounts of binder. As a result of the foregoing deficiencies, previous methods of using recycled materials such as rubber generate manufactured articles having undesirable properties, including low porosity, low traction, and high cost.
Therefore, methods of using recycled materials, including rubber, in new products are needed. In particular, methods using reduced energy, reduced or no virgin material, reduced binder, and low cost equipment requiring a minimum amount of startup capital are desired. In addition, new products made from recycled materials and having versatile properties are desired.